Global R&D Labs Directory

The 311 Institute Global R&D Labs Directory maps 10,000 research and development labs, including corporate innovation labs and digital garages, run by 5,624 companies, governments, militaries, universities, research institutes and international bodies in 170 countries. It shows where research clusters, ranks the world's most innovative countries and is kept current since 2016.

Compiled by Matthew Griffin and the 311 Institute. Last updated 7 October 2026.

10,000R&D labs
5,624organisations
170countries

Search the directory

Jump to a sectionRegionResearch focus Compare

Drag to move. Scroll or pinch to zoom. Press Esc to exit.

Glowing areas are R&D ecosystems, labelled with their main type of lab and research focus. Select one, or a city, to see its labsCorporateGovernmentMilitaryUniversityNon-profitIntergovernmentalResearch institute

The world's leading R&D ecosystems

Where research concentrates, ranked by the number of labs within about 120 kilometres of each other.

Top 12 of 392 ecosystems shown

The world's most innovative countries

The 311 Future Readiness Index 2026, pilot edition. It measures how strongly each country is building the technologies of the future: investment, talent, invention, frontier research, excellence, industry links and high-tech trade.

Top 15 of 50 countries shown

Rank	Country	Score	Likely rank	R&D spend	Talent	Invention	Output	Excellence	Industry links	High-tech trade
1	South Korea	77.2	1–1	100	100	100	79	58	61	61
2	Sweden	74.8	2–4	100	100	74	66	90	93	29
3	Singapore	74.1	2–7	49	100	84	74	100	70	100
4	Switzerland	73.9	3–4	89	92	71	67	78	90	49
5	Germany	72.4	4–7	87	91	89	81	63	83	30
6	United States	72.0	4–8	96	88	96	81	41	70	40
7	China	71.9	4–9	71	69	100	86	69	60	44
8	Japan	71.0	6–10	95	90	100	75	27	80	29
9	Austria	70.8	7–9	90	94	77	63	69	100	30
10	United Kingdom	69.3	10–13	74	85	74	80	76	75	49
11	Denmark	68.7	11–14	84	100	75	63	76	85	29
12	Belgium	68.7	10–15	91	92	61	63	73	100	34
13	Finland	68.6	10–15	86	99	81	61	88	68	15
14	Netherlands	67.7	12–15	62	94	68	68	86	100	39
15	Hong Kong SAR	67.1	9–17	30	91	57	76	100	59	100
16	Israel	66.0	14–17	100	n/a	73	57	66	60	62
17	Norway	65.3	16–17	50	96	74	59	88	89	42
18	France	59.9	18–20	60	89	76	77	32	63	38
19	Canada	59.6	18–20	48	90	68	74	68	64	28
20	Ireland	58.5	18–21	43	91	38	54	78	63	90
21	Australia	56.9	20–22	50	n/a	67	73	90	42	42
22	Italy	56.3	21–23	37	76	74	74	73	47	20
23	Slovenia	55.2	22–25	58	90	67	48	62	59	13
24	Czechia	54.7	23–25	50	86	56	59	56	61	37
25	United Arab Emirates	54.0	23–27	40	74	28	58	100	48	14
26	Estonia	53.3	25–28	50	87	42	41	89	65	30
27	Greece	52.6	26–28	40	89	53	56	72	52	25
28	Portugal	51.9	27–29	46	92	60	59	62	40	11
29	Spain	51.0	29–31	40	81	48	70	60	51	15
30	New Zealand	50.9	29–31	42	90	60	48	79	44	21
31	Malaysia	50.4	27–33	26	58	46	62	65	17	99
32	Hungary	49.3	31–33	37	86	55	49	51	43	37
33	Saudi Arabia	48.2	31–34	16	58	53	73	85	25	0
34	Poland	48.1	33–34	42	81	65	62	47	25	22
35	Türkiye	45.8	35–35	38	74	66	61	36	11	8
36	Russian Federation	41.9	36–39	24	74	71	73	9	12	16
37	Lithuania	40.9	37–40	27	81	48	37	55	21	28
38	Cyprus	40.8	36–45	17	65	7	45	95	39	30
39	Serbia	40.4	38–42	24	75	44	44	44	23	n/a
40	Croatia	40.3	38–44	37	72	44	41	47	30	19
41	Slovakia	40.2	38–44	27	80	48	44	46	29	17
42	Thailand	39.6	40–45	24	63	37	44	50	16	47
43	Vietnam	39.4	37–48	9	50	35	43	43	13	74
44	Latvia	39.2	41–48	21	70	58	34	46	31	29
45	India	38.6	38–50	16	25	42	75	43	17	31
46	Iran	38.4	42–51	18	71	68	66	38	6	0
47	Qatar	38.2	44–50	17	52	40	48	82	27	4
48	Lebanon	38.1	41–53	n/a	n/a	43	34	88	22	4
49	Kazakhstan	38.0	42–53	2	48	53	41	22	10	71
50	Morocco	37.3	46–53	n/a	55	29	45	45	7	8

Pilot edition built only from free, public data: World Bank indicators (including UNESCO R&D data and WIPO patent data) and OpenAlex research records for 2021 to 2025. Taiwan is not yet included because the World Bank does not cover it. The top universities ranking follows once its field-normalised impact data is complete.

Where the R&D money is going

Who spends the most on research and development, whose spending is growing fastest, and where companies are building labs outside their home country.

The biggest R&D spenders

Total R&D spending in the latest official year, with average yearly growth over the previous four years

China$1,112bn 2025+12.2% a year
United States$1,009bn 2024+8.4% a year
Japan$234bn 2024+7.5% a year
Germany$193bn 2024+6.4% a year
South Korea$162bn 2024+9.6% a year
United Kingdom$120bn 2024+6.1% a year
France$93bn 2024+5.3% a year
Taiwan$77bn 2024+11.9% a year
Russia$65bn 2024+6.5% a year
Türkiye$56bn 2024+14.6% a year
Brazil$53bn 2023+8.6% a year
Canada$51bn 2025+5.7% a year

Fastest-growing R&D spending

Average yearly growth over four years, countries spending at least $5bn a year

Saudi Arabia+22.6%$16bn in 2024
Ireland+17.2%$10bn in 2024
Türkiye+14.6%$56bn in 2024
Spain+13.1%$43bn in 2024
Portugal+13.0%$9.7bn in 2024
Argentina+12.9%$8.2bn in 2023
Israel+12.8%$39bn in 2024
China+12.2%$1,112bn in 2025
Taiwan+11.9%$77bn in 2024
Singapore+11.0%$17bn in 2023
Greece+10.8%$7.1bn in 2024
Egypt+10.4%$23bn in 2024

Where companies build labs abroad

From the company's home country to the country hosting its lab, from this directory

United States to Israel7 labs
United States to United Kingdom5 labs
United States to India5 labs
Japan to United States4 labs
Germany to United States4 labs
United Kingdom to United States3 labs
France to United States3 labs
United States to Switzerland3 labs
South Korea to United States3 labs
United States to Canada3 labs

R&D spending is gross domestic expenditure on R&D by business, government, universities and non-profits, in billions of US dollars at purchasing power parity so countries can be compared fairly. Each figure is the latest official one: China 2025 (National Bureau of Statistics, February 2026), the United Kingdom 2024 (Office for National Statistics, August 2026), Canada 2025 and most other countries 2024 (OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators), with UNESCO figures for countries outside the OECD. Countries whose latest official figure is older than 2023 are not shown. Updated 2 October 2026.

All labs

Search at the top, pick a place on the map, or narrow the list here.

Find

Matches lab and organisation names, cities, countries and focus areas

Country Sector Technology

Innovation labs and garages only 152Restricted sites only 38Show closed and merged

10,000 labs

See what these labs will build next

The 311 Institute briefs boards, R&D leaders and governments on the technologies, competitors and investments that will shape their next ten years.

Book a Briefing

Run a lab we've missed?

Tell us the organisation, lab name, city and website and we'll review it for the next update.

Add or update a lab

Browse R&D labs

By country

By ecosystem

By organisation

About the directory

How is the directory checked?

9,626 of the 10,000 labs are checked against official research registers, including the Research Organization Registry (ROR), open reference data, the lab's own website or its parent organisation, with the source and date shown on each lab. The rest are being verified. Corrections are welcome.

What does the directory cover?

It maps 10,000 active research and innovation labs in 170 countries: 729 corporate, 2,162 government, 239 military and defence, 1,268 university, 39 non-profit, 5,519 research institutes and 44 intergovernmental labs such as CERN, ESA and EMBL.

Does it cover China?

Yes. It includes 1,209 labs in China, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences institutes and the new national laboratories to the PLA and state defence research institutes, leading universities and corporate labs such as Huawei, DeepSeek, BYD and CATL. Use China in focus to see them all.

How is it compiled and kept current?

The 311 Institute has maintained it since 2016. Government entries are checked against official registries such as the US Master Government List of federally funded R&D centres and the Fraunhofer institute list, and against the Research Organization Registry (ROR) with research output from OpenAlex, alongside company disclosures, our own research and lab submissions. Labs that close or merge are marked rather than silently dropped.

What is an R&D ecosystem?

A place where research labs cluster close together, usually within about 120 kilometres, sharing talent, universities, suppliers and investors. Silicon Valley, Greater Tokyo and the London Golden Triangle are examples.

How do I add or update a lab?

Use the add or update a lab form and tell us the organisation, lab name, city and website. We review every submission before it is published.

© 311 Institute 2015–2026. This directory, its rankings and analysis are the proprietary work of the 311 Institute and are protected by copyright and database rights. Copying, scraping, extracting or republishing any substantial part without written permission is prohibited. Licensing enquiries: contact us.